


Burn with you

by Pickl3lily



Series: AtomWave week 2016 [1]
Category: DC's Legends of Tomorrow (TV), The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: AtomWave Week 2016, Christmas, Gen, M/M, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 03:09:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8694034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pickl3lily/pseuds/Pickl3lily
Summary: With Ray constantly making the team smile, they decide to help their resident cinnamon roll enjoy Christmas. Things do not go according to plan. Day 1 of AtomWave week 2016, 'Holidays'.





	

Ray Palmer loved making people happy; loved getting those rare smiles from Mick when he would give him sugar filled snacks or put candles out for dinner, despite the objections and concerns of the rest of the team. He loved the dorky smiles and poorly-suppressed laughter from Sara and Amaya as they tried not to enjoy his latest tirade on what a crossover between Firefly and Buffy would look like, despite Amaya having no idea what he was talking about, the idea of cowboys in space made her double over laughing, occasionally wheezing Jonah Hex’s name as explanation for her mirth.

Ray’s antics on the ship were always so frivolous and merry that everyone would have thought he’d be thrilled that they’d chosen to celebrate Christmas; the Team had landed on Christmas eve 1999 and had agreed on the most part, and been blackmailed in the case of Mick, to dress up and decorate the galley. Streamers of red, gold and green were strewn across the room, decorations haphazardly hung and thrown on various places. Mick had finally agreed to cook dinner, having been too late to call out his “not it!” before the others had managed to. The result was unfortunately mouth watering and Mick feared what he knew to be coming – delegation of duty now that they had discovered his outstanding aptitude for cooking. He mentally cursed himself for being unable to let good food spoil even in the name of maintaining his reputation – maybe if they used gas cookers he might have an issue with the flame, but electric appliances bore little interest.

Nonetheless, when Ray entered the galley, usual dopey grin in place, no one had paused in screaming “Merry Christmas!” as he entered, not even Mick, though he would of course deny such a thing. Nobody could have anticipated the way Ray’s smile would fall or how he would turn on his heel and leave. Of course, the rest of the team weren’t surprised when Mick followed him out, ripping the Santa hat from his head and growling at them for dragging him into this in the first place.

When he found Ray, he was sat on the bridge, nestled against the window, staring out into the snow covered landscape ahead. “Sorry. I know you guys must have put in a lot of effort.” His voice was small and flat and just so un-Ray-like that Mick growled, pushing forward and closing the distance, harshly jabbing his toes into Ray’s side. Ignoring Ray’s low grunt of pain, Mick crouched until he was practically nose-to-nose with the man, hot breath wafting the scent of beer and cigarettes into Ray’s tear-streamed face. “You think I came because you didn’t want the party and I did? You think any of us actually wanted to so that for us? Professor’s Jewish, Sara and Jax are atheists, Amaya is Amaya and I’m a freaking Pagan!”

Ray stared, bewildered, “then why-?”

“We did it for you, haircut! It’s not that hard to figure out, thought you were supposed to be a genius. You make us smile all the time and you’re always taking care of us even when we don’t want you to or don’t deserve it. You’re always _there_ and we just wanted to do something for you. “

Mick jarred to an abrupt halt, lips thinning and falling back on his haunches, the fear of having said too much evidence on his face. Ray smiled through his tears and used a hand to force Mick to reconnect their eyes.

“My parents weren’t around a lot. My birthdays were spent in boarding schools and so were my Easters. I only ever got to come home on two occasions outside of summer break – Christmas and my brother Sidney’s birthday. My parents doted on him, and he always got whatever he wanted whenever he wanted it. We celebrated his birthday at home with a giant party whilst all I got was a card in the mail; they didn’t even sign it ‘Mom and Dad’ – they wrote, ‘From Rachel and Tony Palmer’ every year in my Christmas cards too. Sidney got ‘Mom and Dad’ written in his though.”

He fell forwards slightly, face coming to rest on Mick’s shoulder, words muffled as he pressed on. “I always wanted kids, wanted a family do that I could give them everything I never had, but when I walked into the galley… I feel so bad because all I could think was about those Christmases and the fact that nobody cared about me as a kid and that the holiday doesn’t even mean anything. If we look at the research, Jesus would have been born in Spring and it was only initialised as a winter holiday to erase the Winter Solstice and ease the transition from paganism to Christianity and I know I’m babbling but I just-“

Mick’s lips crashed into Ray’s, harshly halting the man’s words, swallowed down in a kiss that consumed Ray in a wave of fire burning through his veins. When they finally broke apart, Mick rested his forehead gently against his lovers, tender in a way he usually reserved for nights of insomnia and nightmares. “Haircut, your parents suck. They ignored you as a kid, so what? The adult that came out of all of that is pretty damn awesome and if you repeat that, I’ll shave your head as you sleep.” He paused as Ray huffed puffs of laughter into his face, tears still silently streaming down his cheeks. “If you don’t wanna celebrate Christmas, we won’t celebrate Christmas. But don’t let it be because of your stupid parents. Hell, my dad’s favourite way to spend the holidays was to stub his cigarettes on my arm and ask how I liked that burn.”

Ray looked horrified, Mick shrugged. “Messed me up for a while, but then… then Snart helped me. He said that if I kept living in the past, I’d never have a future or realise the gift of the present. He was always kinda corny, but the point is, you gotta find a way to move on and get up. My dad burned me to try and chase the flames outta my mind, so now I go to his grave and burn shit into ashes on top of him.”

Kick had never shared this willingly with anyone other than Leonard, but with the smile Ray gave in return, he found himself unable to regret it.

 

For every Christmas following, when Ray would hand him things to burn on Mick’s father’s grave and when Mick would do the same for him at the Palmer mausoleum, _seriously – a freaking mausoleum!_ Mick decided it was amongst the top 3 choices he’d ever made.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This was super rushed and I'm so sorry, but hopefully some of the good parts of my headcanon shone through.


End file.
